139 reviews of this school

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Ps 196 Grand Central Parkway1

Posted October 31, 2014
- a parent

Principal expressly told parents that a teacher is not under any obligation to respond to a parent's email. The teacher told my child it's ok not to finish his homework. Bullying is tolerated at school. What kind of school is this?

PS196 This is a terrible school. All they care about is the state test. The learning process is deteriorating and there is minimal homework. The administration mismanages this place in a shameful manner

P.S. 196 Grand Central Parkway is an outstanding school with emphasis on academics. Ms. Migliano is an excellent principal who has a strong leadership and most teachers (and not all) there are great. My older child went to PS196Q and has been going to Hunter College High School in Manhattan. My younger one has been going to PS196Q since kindergarten. I can only recommend PS196Q to every parent and child. You children will excel at this school.

My daughter is in third grade now and she has been at this school since kindergarten. It has its good and bad. I noticed that the people there yell a lot. To be honest, I think it's due to an overcrowding issue. There are a lot of kids and the ratio of students to teachers is pretty high. Other than the yelling, I have had good experiences...of course I have never had to talk to the principle or administration about any issues, so I have no comment on how well they handle problems. But I have talked to them about possibly taking my daughter out of school for a month to leave the country. They were very helpful. They told me everything I need to know: my options, the forms to fill out, and what will happen. The teachers have all been great. I like the new emphasis on teaching depth and introspection...especially in reading comprehension and writing. My husband and I are both engineers, so my daughter gets a lot of math and science at home. I am grateful for the reading comprehension and writing aspect of the curriculum. I am just starting third grade, so testing hasn't really been pushed a lot yet. I will find out this year how it goes as this is the first year of testing.

When my child was at 3rd grade, one day he brought home a math worksheet with an "Excellent" mark upside down. Then I found 5 errors in his sheet that were never identified by the teacher. It happened seveal times and I reached a conclusion that the teacher pretended that she checked students' work. I thought it was just a bad luck. But when he went to 4th grade, I found no marks or comments on his homework assignments at all. The conclusion is that the teacher never checked homework. Without teachers' feedback, how can a child learn?

My daughter has been at this school for two years already and she enjoys a lot!!! I'm glad with the teacher's feedback, everytime she something to say about my daughter she sends a note and she calls me. It happened every time this past year. I was happy with it. Also, every time they have presentations at school auditorium everything is very organized and beautiful decorated. Congratulions PS 196. Keep up the great work you all do.

Currently, I have two children in the school. They both have scored 99% on the G+T exam this past year. The teachers so far have been very communicative, attentive and caring. I am also a product of the school and although I don't support the standardized testing at such young ages, I firmly believe PS 196 does an amazing job preparing the children to score well. The parents in general are nice as well.

My son is in Kindergarten right now and I have been very happy overall with the school. His teacher is extremely responsive and the parents in his class are very involved. My son does not have much homework, perhaps a page or two each night and a short book to read, which is perfect for him because any more would make him frustrated. I do hear that there are older kids who do have a lot of homework but thats public school. All in all every kid at this early age responds to school differently. But speaking from personal experience, my son who did not transition well at all when he was in day care (since he was 2) tells me every day he loves school, his friends and his teacher.